Posts Tagged ‘tel’

A small, extraordinary jug from the Middle Bronze Age was revealed with the help of high school students who take Archaeology classes, in a recent Israel Antiquities Authority excavation in the town of Yehud just outside Tel Aviv. In ancient-treasure laden Israel, such excavation are routinely launched ahead of construction projects.

According to Gilad Itach, excavation director on behalf of the IAA, “It literally happened on the last day of the excavation, when right in front of our eyes and the of the thrilled students, an unusual ceramic vessel c. 18 cm high was exposed, bearing the image of a person. It appears that the jug, which is typical of the period, was prepared first, and afterwards the unique sculpture – the likes of which has never before been discovered – was added.”

“The level of precision and attention to detail in creating this almost 4,000 year old sculpture is truly impressive,” Itach noted, adding that “the neck of the jug served as a base for forming the upper portion of the figure, after which the arms, legs and a face were added to the sculpture. One can see that the face of the figure seems to be resting on its hand as if in a state of reflection. It is unclear if the figure was made by the potter who prepared the jug or by another craftsman.”

The jug, which was broken when it was found, being restored in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem.

Efrat Zilber, coordinating supervisor of the Land of Israel and Archaeology matriculation stream in the Ministry of Education, emphasized that “the archaeological excavations provide an opportunity for an intensive and direct experience that connects the pupils with our country’s past. An experiential learning experience involving research methods employed in archaeology takes place while revealing the artifacts. The students meet experts in a variety of fields who share their knowledge with them, enriching them and their world”.

In addition to the unique pottery vessel, other vessels and metal items were found in the site, such as daggers, arrowheads, an axe head, sheep bones and what are very likely the bones of a donkey. According to Itach, “It appears that these objects are funerary offerings that were buried in honor of an important member of this ancient community. It was common in antiquity to believe that the objects that were interred alongside the individual continued with him into the next world. To the best of my knowledge, such a rich funerary assemblage that also includes such a unique pottery vessel has never before been discovered in our country.”

In addition, a variety of evidence regarding the kind of life that existed in the area 6,000 years ago was exposed – among other things, pits and shafts were revealed containing thousands of fragments of pottery vessels, hundreds of flint and basalt implements, animal bones, and a churn – a unique vessel that was widely used in the Chalcolithic period for making butter.

High school students working at the Yehud excavation.

The students of the Land of Israel and Archaeology matriculation stream participate in excavations as part of the new training course offered by the IAA and the Ministry of Education, which seeks to connect them with the past and help prepare the archaeologists of the future. Students who choose this course as part of their alternative evaluation for high school matriculation take part in a week of excavation. They experience the variety of jobs involved in the excavation, discuss questions regarding research and archaeological considerations and document the excavations in a field diary as part of their research work.

“Suddenly I saw many archaeologists and important people arriving who were examining and admiring something that was uncovered in the ground” recalls Ronnie Krisher, a student at the Ha’Roeh religious girls’ high school in Ramat Gan. “They immediately called all of us to look at the amazing statuette and explained that this is an extremely rare discovery, one that’s not encountered every day. It is exciting to be part of an excavation whose artifacts will be displayed in a museum.”

Anti-Israel hooligans in Porto, northern Portugal, on Friday night spilled red paint on the front of the restaurant Cantinho do Avillez whose chef participated in a dining festival in Tel Aviv. The thugs also posted signs on the front, reading “Free Palestine,” “Avillez collaborates with Zionist occupation” and “Entrée: A dose of white phosphorus.”

On November 14-17, 2016, thousands of politicians, law enforcement decision-makers and security professionals from around the world will gather at the Tel Aviv Convention Center to attend “Israel HLS & Cyber 2016.” The conference will focus on today’s most imminent security challenges, such as the threats of both physical and cyber terror, securing airports and major transport hubs, and protecting critical infrastructure.

Complementing these important discussions, the Exhibition will run simultaneously and showcase 160 Israeli companies, offering some of the world’s most innovative and advanced technologies in the field.

Years of heightened terrorist threats have led many governments to expand their security measures. Now, more than ever, greater attention is given to protect strategic assets, such as transportation hubs, stadiums and sports facilities, and critical infrastructure.

Faced with a multitude of terrorist threats since its inception, Israel has encouraged and supported the development and implementations of state-of-the-art homeland security solutions. Today, Israel is home to more than 400 companies in this sector and is widely considered to be in the forefront of the global security industry.

In recent years, Israel has also become a leading cyber nation. In 2015, the Israeli cyber sector reached $4 billion in total sales, representing 5% of that year’s global sales in this sector. More than 300 cyber companies operate in Israel, and the number is growing every year.

A Tel Aviv University study published last month in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease suggests a new possible culprit in causing Alzheimer’s: the APOE gene. Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, APOE has two faces: a healthy form called APOE3 and a disease-related pathological form called APOE4. Now, according to a TAU press release, researchers have developed a novel mechanism and approach with which to convert the “bad” APOE4 to the “good” APOE3.

The research was led by Prof. Daniel (Danny) M. Michaelson, Director of the Eichenbaum Laboratory of Alzheimer’s Disease Research and incumbent of the Myriam Lebach Chair in Molecular Neurodegeneration at TAU’s Faculty of Life Sciences, together with Anat Boehm-Cagan, the Eleanore and Harold Foonberg Doctoral Fellow in Alzheimer’s Disease Research, and in collaboration with the commercial company Artery Ltd., based in California.

For the last 20 years, researchers have focused on amyloid beta peptides and the “plaque” they sprout in diseased brains as the main target of Alzheimer’s research. But the pace of progress in treating — not to mention curing — the debilitating, neurodegenerative disease has been painfully slow.

Prof. Michaelson said that “APOE4 is a very important and understudied target. It is expressed in more than 60 percent of Alzheimer’s patients. Anti-APOE4 treatments are thus expected to have a major impact on the patient population.”

He explained that “the normal APOE gene provides the interface that moves lipids — naturally occurring molecules that include fats, cholesterol, fat-soluble vitamins and other components essential to the health of cells — in and out of cells, whereas the healthy APOE3 does so effectively, the bad form — APOE4 — is impaired.”

Prof. Michaelson and other groups have discovered in earlier research that the bad APOE4 and the good APOE3 differed in their interactions with lipid cargo, so that, for example, the good APOE3 is associated with substantially more lipids than APOE4.

The researchers devised an experimental approach to measure the “bad” features of APOE4, utilizing genetically manipulated mice expressing either good or bad forms of APOE. Mice with APOE4 exhibited impaired learning and memory, damaged brain synapses, and an accumulation of phosphorylated tau and a-beta molecules — two pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. Could there be a way of turning the bad gene good?

“Once this model was established and the pathological effects of APOE4 could be reproduced in mice, we could test therapeutic approaches and tackle APOE4 itself,” Prof. Michaelson said. “Because we know that APOE4 carries fewer lipids, we looked at the means of counteracting the lipidation deficiency.”

“We focused on an enzymatic machinery called ABCA1 that loads lipid cargo onto APOE4,” he continued. “We found that the impaired lipidation of APOE4 could be successfully reversed by activating ABCA1. Most importantly, we discovered that this increased lipidation of APOE4 reversed the behavioral impairments and brain damage seen in non-treated APOE4 mice.”

In the course of administering the treatment, the researchers found that mice which prior to treatment exhibited disoriented behavior and seemed “lost,” following treatment were able to locate a submerged island in the middle of an artificial pond. Mice who had forgotten familiar objects — like Coca Cola bottles — suddenly exhibited sharp object recognition.

“Is there really a magic bullet? One treatment that covers all aspects of Alzheimer’s? Not likely,” said Prof. Michaelson. “Therefore there is a need to define specific subpopulations and to develop treatments targeted at genetic risk factors of the disease, like APOE4, which affects more than half of the Alzheimer’s population.”

Police spokespeople said that several floors of a parking structure collapsed, and warned that the collapse could destabilize the remaining floors of the building. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that 150 Home Front soldiers are participating in the rescue operation.

According to Tawfik Habshi, a Magen David Adom paramedic, 23 people have been evacuated to local hospitals, and rescue crews are still trying to make contact with between six and 10 individuals who are still missing.

The building site belongs to the Danya Cebus and Isael Africa companies. According to the Tel Aviv Municipality, construction began on the four-story parking garage, called Ahuzot Chof, in November 2014 and was scheduled for completion by early 2017, with an area of 17,000 square meters.

“MDA, IDF Home Front Command, the Tel Aviv Fire Department and Israel Police are continuing to secure the collapse site in order to locate the missing persons. Search and rescue operations are ongoing as of this time,” Habshi told TPS.

16:11 UPDATE: One trapped man has been located. Rescue crews are working to rescue him. In addition, a 250 ton crane and a sand vacuum truck are on site working to remove rubble.

On August 26, for the first time ever in Israel, Tel Aviv will celebrate a special day for dogs.

Earlier this year, Christopher Muther wrote in the Boston Globe that Tel Aviv is the gayest city on earth. “Tel Aviv is, for lack of a better description, super gay,” he told his readers, adding, “The long-standing rule of thumb is that 10 percent of the population is gay, give or take. The estimate by officials in Tel Aviv is 25 percent of its population is gay.”

So now Tel Aviv, which is already recognized as the friendliest city to gays, is claiming the title of the friendliest city in the world to dogs, with one dog for every 17 Tel Avivians, which the city fathers (and mothers) say is the highest number of per capita dogs on the planet.

They might get a run for their shekel from the State of Vermont which sports 70.8% of whose households own a pet — although these figures don’t specify if it’ a dog, a cat, or an iguana.

The 25,000 Tel Avivian dogs enjoy 70 public dog parks, that’s 1.3 dog parks for every 250 acres. And Tel Aviv has designated special beaches where dogs can roam free.

The city-wide dog day will be celebrated at the Bnei Dan Dog Park near the Yarkon river with many attractions for the canines of Canaan, including Tel Aviv startups that serve dogs and their owners, unique products for doggie birthdays, sushi for dogs, and a dog spa.

The city of Tel Aviv also prides itself on an animal shelter with a no-kill policy; the fact that homeless animals are treated 24/7 by the city’s vet services; the city animal patrol readily checks complaints of animal abuse; and the municipality last month organized a special screening of the movie “The Secret Life of Pets” for dogs and their owners.

The June 8 terrorist massacre in Tel Aviv exposed all five of the major myths that cloud discussions of Israel and the Palestinians.

Myth #1: “The problem is the settlements”

This was not a massacre of “settlers.” The attack did not take place in some disputed territory. Nobody can claim that the victims “provoked” the violence by living in some predominantly Arab area. These were people drinking coffee in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Myth #2: “It was a reaction to the occupation”

The attackers are residents of the village of Yatta. The Israeli occupation of Yatta ended when Israeli troops withdrew from the territories where 98 percent of the Palestinians reside in late 1995. Yatta has been under the rule of the Palestinian Authority for nearly 21 years.

Although Israel’s critics continue to falsely claim that the Palestinians live under “Israeli occupation,” the Israeli public knows better. The Israel Democracy Institute/Tel Aviv University monthly Peace Index survey for May 2016 found 71.7 percent of Israeli Jews say it is wrong to categorize Israel’s status in the territories (it rules the areas where Jews reside) as “occupation.”

Myth #3: “The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack”

The Palestinian Authority (PA) never calls such attacks “terrorism,” and always brackets the attacks on Israelis together with Israeli actions against terrorists, thereby justifying the attacks on Israelis. Its response to the Tel Aviv massacre was no different. It declared: “We condemn violence and attacks against civilians on both sides, whatever the justification.” The PA “not only condemned the attack in south Tel Aviv early on Monday morning, but also the recent Israel Defense Forces strikes on Gaza, and attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and in Jerusalem,” according to Israel’s Channel 10 television network.

Fatah, which is chaired by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, explicitly defended the massacre. According to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an, Fatah issued a statement calling the attack “a natural response” to Israeli actions.

Fatah media committee head Munir al-Jaghoub explained, “Israel must realize the consequences of its persistence to push violence, house demolition policies, forced displacement of Palestinians, raids by Israeli settlers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and the cold-blooded killing of Palestinians at checkpoints.”

That’s the equivalent of the Democratic Party defending the San Bernardino massacre of 2015. Imagine U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), head of the Democratic National Committee, saying the killings in southern California were the “consequences” of President Barack Obama sending drones to carry out the “cold-blooded killing” of al-Qaeda members.

Myth #4: “Ordinary Palestinians are against terrorism”

Israel Hayom reports that, “In Ramallah, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Jenin, and other cities, people danced in the streets, set off fireworks, and handed out treats while praising the attacks.” When the PA’s schools, newspapers, television stations constantly praise terrorists as “heroes” and “martyrs,” it is no wonder ordinary Palestinians have come to feel the same way.

The cities where the celebrations took place would be the heart of a future Palestinian state. They are just a few miles down the road from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Can those who celebrate massacres be trusted with a sovereign, independent state next door to Israel?

Myth #5: “The major American news outlets are staffed by objective, professionally trained journalists; if their coverage of Israel is unflattering, that’s because of Israel’s own policies, not because of media bias”

CNN’s Twitter announcement of the attack put the word “terrorists” in quotation marks, stating, “Two ‘terrorists’ captured after Tel Aviv attack, Israeli police spokesman tweets.” The Washington Post’s correspondents in Israel, William Booth and Ruth Eglash, exhibited the same bias. They described the terrorists as “gunmen,” “assailants,” and “attackers”—but never as terrorists, and only indirectly as Palestinians. And the headline-writers at Washington Post headquarters came up with this gem: “4 Killed in Tel Aviv Market Shooting that Officials Labeled Terrorist Attack.”

Perhaps copies of the Washington Post should bear labels of their own: “Warning: The reporting in this newspaper may be hazardous to the truth. It is often slanted for the purpose of protecting the Palestinian cause against criticism.”